YOU DID IT!
LOT 19 WILL BE PROTECTED FOREVER.
LOT 19 WILL BE PROTECTED FOREVER.
Thank you for helping us protect Lot 19 Forest Close forever.
Not 1, not 2, not 3…. but almost 7 hectares! This property reconnects five properties within the Rainforest Rescue Nature Refuge with the protected National Park and World Heritage Area. THANK YOU!
Lot 19 Forest Close
Lot 19 Forest Close would be an ideal location for that retirement home or that holiday home – with sweeping views over the Daintree River Valley and out to the Coral Sea. And at almost 7 hectares, it’s large and private.
I’m sure the real estate agents would’ve liked to get their hands on this one.
“Perfect for the family vacation chalet you’ve always dreamed of or retirement in paradise.”
Fortunately, we got there first.
Lot 19 Forest Close is so much more than a piece of real estate. It is a keystone property for the Rainforest Rescue Nature Refuge Corridor which, until now, has been one property away from connecting to the National Park. You made this happen.
With this urgent buyback, you have reconnected these five intact rainforest properties with the protected National Park and World Heritage Area.
This was an extremely valuable rescue and very worthwhile.
Together we are Protecting Rainforests Forever.
Creating Connectivity
Wildlife corridors contribute to the resilience of the landscape in a changing climate. They help to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions by storing carbon in native vegetation. They support natural processes that occur in a healthy environment, including the movement of species to find resources, such as food and water.
Building on prior rescues allows us to create and extend corridors, growing the Daintree and protecting it from destructive development. We have built 5 corridors and we continue to add to them, together with your partnership and support.
Growing the Rainforest Rescue Nature Refuge Wildlife Corridor at Forest Creek is happening today, adding this final bridge to the protected National Park, with your support.
Extending this life bridge, growing this corridor, benefits the Daintree and all its creatures.
From the ancient Cassowary to the endangered Spotted-tail Quoll, the tree-kangaroos and the musky rat-kangaroos…and so much more…this property supports and is full of rare and threatened plants as well, helping to create habitat that makes the Daintree so very special.
This lot is at the end of the close and shares a boundary with an existing Rainforest Rescue purchase Lot 18. This 6.85 hectare property has a long rear boundary with the National Park/WHA and with the exception of a very steep driveway and flattened house pad plays host to well structured intact forest.
– Allen Sheather, Ecological Advisor for Rainforest Rescue
We both consider that this purchase would represent an excellent ecological gain by virtue of securing the forest link from the previous five Rainforest Rescue purchases through to the National Park/World Heritage Area and leaving just two unsettled properties in the Close. The acquisition criteria score card gives us an overall score of 38 out of 45 which includes a value for money ranking and is a good indicator of how important this rescue will be.
– Allen Sheather and Barbara Maslen, Ecological Advisors for Rainforest Rescue
It’s our nature to protect
Wildlife of Lot 19 Forest Close
Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo
This elusive Tree Kangaroo is found in both mountain and lowland tropical rain forests south of Cooktown, Queensland to just north of the Daintree River; an area of only about 44 miles by 31 miles. Agile marsupial tree-dwellers, most Tree Kangaroos are considered threatened due to hunting and habitat destruction. Australia has two endemic species – Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus bennettianus) and Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) Learn more about Tree Kangaroos here.
(Image of Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo © Tina Redmond)
Southern Cassowary
The Australian Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) is endemic to the tropical rainforests of Far North Queensland. Their habitat has been seriously reduced by land clearing for farming, urban settlement, and other development. Habitat loss is the primary threat to what may be as few as 4,600 birds left in the wild. Urban development continues to threaten the populations that occur outside protected areas… like Forest Close. Learn more about Cassowaries here. (Image of ‘Sammy’ with chick ‘Peanut’ © Robert Tidey)
Spectacled Flying Fox
The Spectacled Flying Fox (Pteropus conspicillatus), also known as the Spectacled Fruit Bat, is a megabat that lives in Australia’s northeastern regions of Queensland. The species was classified as endangered by the IUCN in 2020. In 2019 the Australian government upgraded the threatened status from vulnerable to endangered after almost a third of the bat population died in a severe heatwave in Queensland in late 2018. Learn more about Spectacled Flying Foxes here.
(Image of Spectacled Flying Foxes © Ian ‘Sauce’ Worcester)
Musky Rat-Kangaroo
The Musky Rat-Kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) is a small marsupial found only in the rainforests of north-eastern Australia. They are the smallest kangaroo in existence, weighing in at only 620g. Musky Rat-Kangaroo’s are similar to Potoroos and Bettongs to look at but are not as closely related. They are not endangered as much as say, the Southern Cassowary, but their habitat is. They are one more good reason to protect the Daintree habitat. Learn more about the Musky-Rat Kangaroo here.
(Image of Musky Rat Kangaroo © Tim Graham Photography)
Why was rescuing Lot 19 and connecting the corridor so important?
Our strategy is to both protect the undeveloped integrity of the Daintree, as well as reduce the amount of human impact on the local ecology by decreasing the number of available blocks that could be developed.
Property values are also increasing in the Daintree—just as they are everywhere. Getting the best value for money is important: you’re trusting us to make every dollar go as far as we can stretch it. Being able to negotiate with owners directly is our preferred way to do business, and we are thrilled that the owner of Lot 19 is willing to sell this to us for protection—not development.
Rainforest Rescue is well known up here in the Daintree and they have a good reputation. Selling to them protects my block, and it was an obvious opportunity where we all win. I love this property – selling it almost feels like losing an old friend. But thanks to Rainforest Rescue I know that I won’t have to worry about it; it will always be there for the animals of this beautiful place, part of this ancient rainforest, never to be cleared. I’m grateful to have this opportunity to protect this.
– Craig, Current Owner of Lot 19 Forest Close
I believe that protecting wildlife and the rainforest habitat is our duty. And we have a choice; we can allow the threat of development to continue for this important property, or we can protect it forever, together.
– Branden Barber, CEO Rainforest Rescue
‘Elevation’. That is the word that comes to mind when I explored Lot 19 Forest Close as a great potential block to protect for the future. As you gain ‘elevation’ on the block’s naturally regenerating driveway, you can observe the change in the forms of the forest from either side of the ridgeline it meanders along.
The niches for the unique Daintree life are very prevalent here. The homes are obvious for Boyd’s Forest Dragons to Musky Rat Kangaroos, pathways for Southern Cassowary, and protected leaf-laden cuttings for nesting Rain Whistling Frogs and hunting Velvet worms. Big and small, Wet or Dry loving, Daintree lifeforms have a place or a highway with this property.
With a purchase of Lot 19, it will solidify the connectivity of our current properties on Forest Close and Forest Creek Rd and ‘elevate’ their status into a strong corridor for the movement of the Daintree’s great biodiversity of life, from the lowland forests to the upland Daintree National Park areas of the Alexander Range, and onto the elevated cloud forests of Thornton’s Peak.
Your support for the Daintree means the world to the plants and animals that make their homes here – literally. This is their world. Working together to protect it for them and for future generations is truly remarkable. It’s why I get up every day.
With thanks,
Justin, Daintree Land Manager Rainforest Rescue
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